A message from Julia Kyle, director, Behavioral Health Strategy & Planning
Our ongoing efforts to integrate behavioral health into general medical care coming to fruition

For the past decade, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been exploring how best to integrate behavioral health into general medical care. We recognize that psychologists and other behavioral health specialists can help patients with life-threatening illnesses, such as coronary heart disease and cancer, better manage pain and cope with medical interventions and their side effects. Behavioral health specialists also can help patients address the many psychological and emotional components of medical illnesses.

I’m pleased to see that many of our efforts are coming to fruition. Behavioral health is now considered a key corporate priority and essential to improving patient outcomes and improving the quality of care.

Perhaps the centerpiece of our efforts to better integrate behavioral health with medical care is our new Collaborative Care Designation Program, which adds a behavioral health component to the primary care setting. With Collaborative Care, a doctor who is part of a Patient-Centered Medical Home joins forces with a behavioral health care manager and a psychiatric consultant to offer patients well-integrated care. We’ve found that patients are often more comfortable addressing their behavioral health needs through their primary care practice so this is a model that works well for many patients.

We’ve also developed a supplementary Collaborative Care training module for delivering collaborative care to adolescents.

Here are several other examples of our efforts to provide increased behavioral health integration:

• We recently announced a new behavioral health incentive to encourage physician organizations to submit screening data for the following three screening types:
• Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, or GAD-7
• Patient Health Questionnaire-9, or PHQ-9

There will be an added incentive paid to OB-GYN offices that are included in the data collection initiative.

• We know that obstetricians and gynecologists routinely see patients who may have behavioral health needs. To that end, we’re developing a supplementary Collaborative Care training module for delivering collaborative care to the perinatal population.
• The foundation of the Collaborative Care designation is our Patient-Centered Medical Home program, a program that promotes coordination of care with specialists and other health care providers. Through The Record and other provider-facing publications, such as this article in the October Record, we regularly encourage primary care providers to share patient information with specialists (including behavioral health specialists) and vice versa.
• We’ve featured guest columns in Hospital and Physician Update from psychologists and clinical social workers who discuss how medical issues, including medication adherence, insomnia, tracking glucose levels in diabetics and weight control, can better be resolved by understanding the connection between medical and behavioral health needs.
• We previously offered incentives to physician organizations for each new fully licensed psychologist they brought into their organization. Currently, 32 POs have included fully licensed psychologists. We applaud them for their commitment to behavioral health integration and would like to see more POs follow suit.

Additionally, as part of our increased focus on behavioral health, we recently launched the following initiatives:

• Mobile crisis and crisis stabilization program — Our new mobile crisis and crisis stabilization program helps our commercial members who are under the age of 65 get prompt and appropriate behavioral health treatment, helping to avoid an emergency room visit. Three facilities are currently part of the program, with more expected to join in the near future. Members can access services in three major ways: by calling the facility, making an in-person visit or by calling the mental health and substance abuse number on the back of their member ID card. In an article on this topic, my colleague, Dr. William Beecroft states: “The beauty of these services is they can meet the member where they are and be accessed any way you need to access them.”
• Behavioral health member engagement campaign — We’ve launched the second year of our behavioral health member engagement campaign to reinforce the importance of seeking help for mental health or substance use concerns and making sure members know how to access key resources. The campaign includes, among other tactics:
• A series of emails and direct mail outreach to members
• A refreshed behavioral health website with information about mental health and substance use and a new mental health guide specifically for seniors
• Advertising and social media, including blogs on a variety of behavioral health topics and content for various communities on MI Blues Perspectives and the Mind section of A Healthier Michigan
• A refreshed behavioral health toolkit with more resources, including a guide to help employers talk to their employees about mental health and substance use concerns

I encourage practices to check out our behavioral health toolkit and refer patients to our behavioral health website or other resources I’ve mentioned above for additional support if they’re facing behavioral health challenges. I also urge physician organizations and practices to continue to explore ways that they can better integrate behavioral health into practices and enhance coordination of care.

By fully integrating behavioral health with general medical care, we can improve patient satisfaction and overall care quality.

We’d like to hear from our participating physicians and POs

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.